1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a method for controlling the image forming apparatus, and a storage medium storing a program.
2. Description of the Related Art
At printing agencies that produce a variety of printed matters, an operator executes a print job based on a printing operation list that is created considering various factors, such as delivery time of printed matters, expected quality, and the time taken for printing. In this case, in general, print jobs are accumulated in a printing apparatus, and job management functions are carried out, such as editing of each job, start of the print jobs, and check of duration and paper, which are done by the operator. Under such management, the operator sets necessary paper in the printing apparatus and starts printing after confirming that printing can be performed, so as to carry out the printing in accordance with the printing operation list.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-9980 discloses a technique for assisting the aforementioned checking operation. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-9980, paper that is set in a paper cassette is compared with paper to be used in a print job, and if the paper to be used in the print job is not set, the paper for print job is displayed with an empty box such that the operator can determine the paper that is not set.
Printing agencies deal with a large quantity of print jobs, and each operator deals with multiple print jobs in parallel. With the technique disclosed in the aforementioned patent document, if an operator becomes aware that necessary paper for a print job is not set, he/she replaces paper in order to resolve this situation. At this time, if the operator deals with multiple print jobs, there is a possibility that, after the state is resolved where paper for a specific print job is not ready, a state then occurs where paper for another print job is not ready instead. To resolve this state, it is necessary to restore the replaced paper to original paper, or to replace paper in another paper cassette.
To replace paper, it is necessary to perform an operation of operating the printing apparatus to replace the paper type, and furthermore, physically withdrawing a paper cassette and setting the paper therein, and if this operation is frequently performed, it requires much time and effort. In addition, an operation of restoring replaced paper to original paper is likely to lead to operation errors, such as placing paper in an incorrect cassette and setting an incorrect paper type. Moreover, in terms of printing efficiency, it is desirable to resolve the state in which paper is not ready, for as many print jobs as possible at a time, and to collectively start printing. However, since the paper replacement operation itself places a great burden as mentioned above, it is difficult to significantly reduce the burden during the paper replacement operation so as to achieve an improvement in printing efficiency.